Always
by Ace of Hearts
Summary: After fifteen break ups in little more than one month, Kitty ends her relationship with Lance. For good. But good old Rocky has a plan to win her back...
1. Chapter One

This fic was actually inspired by the song _Always,_ by Bon Jovi. Now, normally, I have zero tolerance for love songs (and I mean that; watch me gag at the Enrique Iglesisas music videos and you'll see what I mean), but I have a soft spot in my heart for Jon Bon Jovi (who, by the way, has, like, THE most gorgeous smile, ever!), and after hearing _Always, _it made me realize that if I had a boyfriend to break up with, after hearing that song, I'd be running right back to him--keywords there being on _if_ I had a boyfriend to break up with in the first place! -_-. Anyways, hope you enjoy the fic! 

* * *

**Chapter One**

* * *

Kitty Pryde tapped her foot nervously against the dingy, obviously unwashed, and, more likely than not, rotting wooden floor that graced the ever humble Brotherhood abode to a beat only she knew. Lounging in a ratty overstuffed velvet seat a few feet away, Wanda Maximoff, whom Kitty would readily admit any day scared the hell out of her, shot her a dirty look, ever suspicious as to what an X-Geek could possibly be doing within five feet of the "other mutants". Fortunately for Kitty, this time, the gothic vamp seemed content with just glaring at her, and Wanda refrained from turning the unexpected visit into a catfight and instead returned to her _Fistful of Metal _album, blasting full-force on her headphones. Kitty winced as Anthrax continued to blare, loud enough to shatter all the windows at the Brotherhood house--except, of course, said windows had been taped over enough times with masking tape to protect them from the loud speed metal blasting at ninety-plus decibels.   
"So, um, like, is Lance coming down anytime soon?" Kitty ventured nervously, trying to strike up a casual conversation with the Brotherhood's new resident vixen. Wanda pulled down her headphones, long enough to mutter, "He's in the shower. Care to join him?" An arched eyebrow joined her second sentence, to which Kitty blushed like a fire engine and immediately ducked her head, pretending to be fascinated with the ripped carpet beneath her sandals.   
"No--no--no," the pretty freshman stammered, horrified at Wanda's bluntness. The Brotherhood bombshell, meanwhile, had shrugged, and replaced her headphones around her ears, muttering, "Your loss." 

At the particular remark, Kitty couldn't help but wonder exactly whether Wanda had ever seen Lance in the shower. But she didn't have time to ponder over that particular thought for long, though, as Lance bounded down the stairs, his longish dark hair framing his ruggedly handsome face in wet chestnut locks to confirm Wanda's earlier excuse for him being late due to a shower.   
"Hey there, Kitty," Lance greeted cheerfully, leaning in to give his girlfriend a quick peck on the cheek. Kitty wrung her hands uncomfortably, and wondered to herself why exactly she was doing this. Studying Lance's profile, she had to admit to herself that he was...well, as Tabitha would say, a total babe. And when he wasn't busy picking fistfights with Scott or dropping ceilings on Principal Kelly, Lance could be a really sweet, nice guy, who genuinely seemed to care for Kitty. Which was going to make what she was about to say all the much harder. Kitty raised her head, carefully avoiding eye contact with Lance, as she stammered out nervously and almost timidly, "I...I think we...we should...we should stop seeing each other." 

To a person who wasn't aware of Lance and Kitty's rather...interesting relationship, the tall, dark, and handsome senior's reaction to the break up would have seemed downright bizarre, as Lance shrugged the news off and then subsequently said without a care in the world, "Fine, then. I'm cool with it." Kitty, who had been squeezing her eyes tightly shut as if anticipating a confrontation, promptly snapped up and demanded, in an almost insulted voice, "What do you mean, fine then, you're cool with it?! Is that _all_ you're going to say?"   
Lance looked surprised by her indignation.   
"Well, what do you want me to do?" he wanted to know. "Do you want me to throw a temper tantrum and run out of the room?"   
Kitty couldn't exactly respond to that, so she instead mumbled lamely, "I...I don't know. Maybe show some _feeling, _perhaps? I mean, the relationship is over!"   
"Kitty, the relationship has been over fifteen times in the past thirty-five days," Lance spoke up, sounding more amused than heartbroken.   
"That's thirty-_three_ days," Kitty corrected him huffily. Her now-ex-boyfriend shrugged again, unfazed.   
"Eh, close enough," he mumbled. Then, in a cheerier voice, Lance added, "So, when do you want me to send over the roses? Tonight or tomorrow?"   
"Lance," Kitty spoke up softly, "there isn't going to be a tonight or a tomorrow. Not this time."   
Before Lance, who had opened his mouth to respond to her particular words, had a chance to question her, Kitty hastened to explain.   
"Lance, we're not just going to break up for thirty-six hours, and then kiss and make up," she said gently. "It's just not going to happen. Not this time. Not ever again."   
Lance looked stunned, and Kitty felt a flash of guilt go through her as she gazed upon his surprised features. She thought she saw a bolt of hurt go through the dark depths that were his gorgeous eyes, but she wasn't sure.   
"Wow, that was certainly a nice anniversary present," Lance muttered, and the sudden realization that she had ended their relationship on their anniversary only made Kitty feel guiltier than she already did.   
"Lance, I'm really sorry about this, but--" she started to say, fumbling for the usual excuses a person used when breaking up with that special someone. 

"Kitty: is there someone else?"   
Lance's question caught her off-guard, and Kitty nearly stumbled backwards in her surprise.   
"What...what do you mean by that?" she wanted to know.   
"Kitty, I know we've broken up over some pretty silly reasons in the past," Lance began to say. And it was true, too. Once, Kitty had ended their relationship because she'd been harboring a secret celebrity crush on Josh Hartnett, and felt that she would only been stringing Lance along if she kept dating him; another time, they'd broken up because Kitty had gotten mad when Lance made a reasonably innocent remark that he thought Carmen Electra was sexier than Pamela Anderson, which had subsequently alerted his girlfriend that yes, he _did_ notice when an attractive specimen of the opposite sex appeared.   
"But this time, there must be a far more serious reason for you to be ending the relationship for good, and it's not just because you think you're cheating on me because you're secretly in love with an old picture of young Elvis or whatever," Lance finished. At this, Kitty dipped her head guiltily, feverishly avoiding eye contact. Lance arched his eyebrows.   
"So, then." He sighed. "Who is it?"   
After five minutes of fidgeting and stalling, Kitty finally coughed up an answer.   
"Well, if you really must know," she sighed, and then paused, his name on the tip of her tongue. Finally, she had the courage to squeeze out, "It's Kurt...Don't kill him!" 

Kitty didn't know what to expect. Half of her was waiting for Lance to throw back his head and start laughing, the other half feared that he might go berserk and hunt down Kurt, and subsequently make him suffer a very, very, _very_ miserable end. She was surprised, and surprisingly offended, when Lance took the news by doing what he'd been doing ever since she'd announced her desire for them to break up: he simply shrugged.   
"Fine, then. That's cool with me," he muttered, and he really _did_ seem to be cool with the whole situation. Kitty was insulted at first by his lack of emotion over the fact that she was ending--for real, this time--their almost Romeo and Juliet-esque relationship by breaking up with Romeo to go with a blue-furred German version of County Paris. But then, when she pictured a black-and-blu_er _Kurt dangling by his underwear from the school flag pole, she decided that relief was the better emotion to dwell on rather than indignation.   
"So...you're not mad at me?" she ventured timidly. Lance looked like he couldn't care less about how their relationship was ending--supposedly for good this time.   
"Course I'm not mad," he replied. "Why would I be?"   
Kitty looked immensely relieved, partly because of how well Lance had taken their break up, mostly because now she didn't have to worry about having to date both Kurt _and_ his hospital bed.   
"Well, then...I guess I should go now," the chestnut-haired X-girl muttered, and jumped up to scurry out of the Brotherhood house, partly because she didn't want to be around in case Lance decided to change his mind and throw a tantrum after all, partly because Wanda and her Anthrax were still scaring the hell out of her. 

As soon as Kitty had left, Lance turned around and started upstairs, toweling his still wet hair off as he walked.   
"So?"   
The gruffly-spoken word caught his attention, and the leader of the Brotherhood stopped in his tracks and turned around. He'd forgotten that one bewitching vamp--pun fully intended--had been in the room as well, and had overheard the entire exchange between himself and who was now his ex-girlfriend. Lance stared at Wanda, who'd pulled off her headphones and was arching her eyebrows questioningly at him.   
"What do you mean, so?" he wanted to know, a bit irritated by Wanda's attitude but too scared of her hellish personality to let said irritation show. Although, naturally, he would never, _ever_ admit to anyone the degree to which the bitter goth scared him, but he had a feeling that everyone--especially Wanda's own brother, Pietro Maximoff--was intimidated by said goth.   
"Are you just going to let her walk all over you like that?" Wanda wanted to know. Lance tightened his hands into fists at her remark.   
"She wasn't walking all over me, she just ended our relationship, that's all," he said hotly.   
"She betrayed you--the person she was supposed to love--by having an affair with that furry blue salamander, and you're just going to be Mr. Cool and let it slide?" Wanda demanded angrily, acting almost as though Kitty and Lance's break up had affected her on a personal level. Lance cringed under the vixen's scathing verbal assault. For some reason, Wanda had a thing about traitors amongst loved ones, but he wasn't exactly sure he wanted to find out why.   
"Well, that's certainly a new, interesting description of the Elf Boy," Lance muttered. Wanda turned off her Walkman, something which would have immensely relieved Kitty but not Lance since he wasn't exactly all too bothered by Anthrax or speed metal in general, and stood up.   
"You know what you need to do?" the newest Brotherhood recruit demanded, hellfire burning in her darkly-colored eyes.   
"No, but I think I know what you're saying," Lance mumbled slowly, then started speaking in a rapid rush of words as an idea suddenly occurred to him. "You're saying that I can't let the fuzzy blue elf, with his obviously fake German accent and his girly clothes, take my girl away from me, and I should turn the tables on him and steal Kitty back!"   
Wanda snapped back, looking somewhat surprised.   
"Actually, I was going to say that--" she started to say, but was cut off by Lance, who turned around and pumped her hand enthusiastically.   
"Thank you very much, Wanda," he said brightly, finally letting go his handshake--if it could even be called that. "Let it be known that today is the day that I, Lance Alvers, a.k.a. Avalanche, a.k.a. the Earthquake guy, a.k.a. the hottie with the fruit bowl shoved over his head (which, by the way, is not my fault--Mystique made me wear that thing!) steal Kitty Pryde from Kurt Wagner!"   
Wanda, who had been trying to convey the message that she was suggesting he get revenge on Kitty and Kurt (and when she said revenge, she meant beating them to a bloody pulp and then ignoring them for the rest of their lives), finally gave up, and returned to her Anthrax while Lance was still ranting about stealing girlfriends and Mystique's obsession with salad bowls. Or was that soup bowls? However, as _Fistful of Metal_ resumed to blaring at ninety decibels, Lance, who was apparently re-energized by his new mission in life and had forgotten that he was supposed to be scared of the hellish vamp, quickly grabbed Wanda's hand and pulled her out of her seat.   
"And _you,_ Wanda Maximoff, a.k.a. the Scarlet Witch, a.k.a. the _other_ gothic beauty, a.k.a. Pietro's crazy femme fatale sister, are going to help me!" 

* * *

I can't believe I missed _The HeX Factor! _Wah! All I know, from the little snippets I've read in discussion boards and episode reviews, is that Tabitha leaves the Brotherhood (too bad, I had originally slated for Tabitha to be Lance's love advisor, and not Wanda), and that Wanda, who looks like a short-haired, angrier version of Rogue, makes her grand entrace by beating the living crap out of the X-Geeks, who promptly return the the mighty chrome dome in the sky (oops, did I just say that? I meant Professor Xavier) and throw temper tantrums for *gasp* losing their first ever battle against the Brotherhood! Oh, and there's also a Kurtty moment with bouncing muffins and everything (I meant that literally, you perverts!), and what I'm told to be an absolutely adorable chibi Pietro! Still can't believe I missed that episode! If I didn't love myself so much, I'd be kicking me right now! Oh, well. At least I kind of feel better, now that I've started a new ficcie and everything. ^_^ 


	2. Chapter Two

* * *

**Chapter Two**

* * *

Kitty bounded down the stairs, taking them two at a time, as she hurriedly dashed out of her bedroom and sprinted toward the kitchen, having overslept and suffering the consequences.   
"Bye, Storm!" Kitty called out breathlessly, as she grabbed the first edible item her hands reached and made a mad dash for the front doors. 

Fifteen minutes later, with a half-eaten plain bagel dangling out of her mouth, Kitty finally arrived at Bayville High, and with forty-five seconds to spare, too. Feeling somewhat proud of herself, Kitty walked at a less suicidal pace toward her locker. She spun the combination she knew by heart, and flung the narrow metallic door open...and was promptly assaulted by a barrage of cheap chocolate candies.   
"Ack! What the...!" Had she been on _Springer, _Kitty would have probably been censored out. Luckily for the supposedly pure, perky freshman, no one was around to witness her language slip up, and Kitty's reputation escaped untarnished. Kitty herself, meanwhile, didn't have to guess to know who was responsible behind the little candy rain.   
"Grrr! Lance Alvers, I'm gonna kill you!" she seethed, furious. Just then, a particularly large piece of cheap chocolate candy, which must have frozen overnight and had thus gotten rock-hard, fell and hit Kitty squarely in the forehead, before bouncing off and leaving a sticky imprint. Kitty meanwhile, promptly got knocked out cold by the rock-hard piece of chocolate, and fainted, hitting her head unceremoniously against her locker door on the way down. 

* * *

A miserable-looking Kitty sat dejectedly in the nurse's office, getting checked for possible concussions. The pretty freshman furiously tightened her hands into fists, growling under her breath, "As soon as this nurse and her five identical sisters go away, I'm gonna hunt Lance Alvers down and make him wish he'd _never_ bought that cheap chocolate!"   
"What's that, hon?" the nurse wanted to know. "You say something?"   
"Huh?" Kitty was surprised, before realizing that she'd made her death threat out loud, and quickly flashing her most innocent smile. "No, of course not."   
"Oh, okay, then," the nurse replied, and went back to checking for concussions. 

Just then, a delivery boy stuck his head into the room. Reading from a yellow Post-It note, the redheaded teen asked, "Is there a Kitty Pryde in here?"   
Kitty replied instinctively, "I'm Kitty Pryde." The delivery boy then thrust over a handmade bouquet of hastily picked wildflowers.   
"Someone wanted you to have this," he muttered. "Lance Something-Or-Other."   
Kitty glanced warily at the wildflower bouquet, before reluctantly accepting it.   
"Well," she murmured, "I don't _see_ anything in here that could give me a concussion...Bee! Bee!" Her murmur soon turned into a wild shriek, as said fuzzy yellow-and-black insect flew out from a wild rose, and promptly began buzzing all around Kitty.   
"Bee! Bee!" the freshman continued to screech madly. "Kill it! Kill it!"   
"Hon, will you just relax?" The nurse rolled her eyes, opening a window and letting the offensive bugger zip out of the room. Kitty glared daggers at the badly-picked bouquet of wildflowers.   
"Lance, I don't know what you're up to," she started to grumble, "but if you think that this is going to win me over, then you've got...ah...you've got...ah...ah...ah-choo! Ah-choo! Ah-choo! Ah-choo!"   
"Bless you," the nurse replied cheerily, as Kitty continued to sneeze her head off.   
"Wah! I'm allergic to something in here!" Kitty wailed, as she continued to run about, sneezing like a madwoman. "Ah-choo! Ah-choo! Ah-choo! Ah--Ouch!" she grumbled, when, in her sneezing fit, she forgot to watch where she was backing into and promptly smacked her head squarely against a metal cabinet. Kitty had the energy to mumble out another death threat against Lance, before her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she collapsed onto the floor, unconscious and with probably another concussion. 

* * *

Ah, lunchtime. Probably Lance's favorite period, except for maybe Physical Education, and that was only because the seniors were learning Kickboxing, and it gave Lance an excuse for beating the living crap out of people without having to serve time in detention. So, anyway, Lance was seated confidently at a bench in the school courtyard, preening about how all his "romantic gifts" must have won Kitty over by now. Seated beside him (and that was only because she hated Pietro's guts, and the Brotherhood usually ate as a pack), Wanda rolled her eyes, before deciding that she couldn't take any more of Lance's declarations of self-love--he was starting to remind her a bit too much of a dark-haired, American Badass version of Pietro--and sought comfort in her Walkman, cranking up Celtic Frost into the supersonic level. 

As Lance continued to brag and hard rock continued to blare, a black-and-blue Kitty staggered her way toward the duo. She caught sight of Lance, and zoomed in on him, her eyes blazing with fury.   
"You!" she shrieked hoarsely, as she forgot the fact that she was supposed to be suffering from five concussions, and stalked over to Lance and Wanda. Lance, meanwhile, looked up smugly, before asking, "So, did you get my presents?"   
Kitty looked like she wanted to strangle him.   
"Yes, I got your presents," she seethed sarcastically. "And guess what? You and your stupid "romantic presents" nearly killed me today!"   
As Kitty bristled, Lance took in sight of her bedraggled appearance for the first time since their conversation had started, and whistled.   
"Aw, Kitty, I know you're a tough little X-girl and everything, but that doesn't mean you should go pick fights against the girls' wrestling team," he said innocently. "You know you could never win."   
At that, Kitty moved in to strangle him...but just then, Wanda's Celtic Frost hit a particularly loud riff, and the sudden blast of hard rock scared the young freshman a few feet back. Kitty glared, before fuming, "Listen, Lance, I already told you we've broken up! There's nothing you can do about it, so stop sending me your stupid "romantic gifts" already--but if you're gonna do that anyway, at least try sending something that I might enjoy, and I don't mean that from a hospital bed!" 

And with that, Kitty stormed off, with Wanda giving her the evil eye and muttering something about traitors. Lance, however, looked like he'd just had another brainstorm at the last part of Kitty's sentence.   
"That's it!" He snapped his fingers. "I know exactly how to help me get Kitty back."   
Wanda felt like rolling her eyes.   
"And just how are you going to do that?" she demanded sarcastically. Lance turned to Wanda, and began doing his best puppy eyes impression.   
"Wanda: the most beautiful, bewitching, intelligent, charming, lovable, sweet, powerful, adorable, independent, strong..."   
"All right, already!" Wanda snapped impatiently. "Will you just get to the point?"   
"...lovely, enchanting, breathtaking, stunning girl in the world," Lance finished in a quick rush of words. "Will you do me just one eensy, weensy, teensy itty bitty favor...?" 

* * *

Last period of Lance's busy schedule (which included, amongst other things, Home Economics and Fashion & Design, classes that Lance would much rather forget he took) was Physical Education, and after a particularly satisfying session of beating up other guys, he needed a nice, relaxing hot shower. And as he stood underneath the steady stream of hot water and steam, Lance thought he heard a sudden commotion in the boy's locker room. _Gee, I wonder what happened...?_ he started to wonder, before the curtain to his stall was abruptly yanked open and a familiar gothic vamp barged in.   
"Wanda!" Lance hissed, quickly grabbing his towel and wrapping it around his waist before the Brotherhood vixen saw too much. Unfortunately for him, the fluffy white towel was about as puny as they make them, and it didn't quite cover up as much as he'd hoped for, leaving little to nothing to the imagination. Wanda's eyes, meanwhile, never flicked downward, as she reported dutifully, "I've come here to tell you what I've found out about your little ex-girlfriend's likes."   
"In the showers in the boy's locker room?" Lance demanded indignantly. Wanda shrugged.   
"Anyway," she began, "before I get kicked out by the Coach, here's what I found..." 


	3. Chapter Three

**Chapter Three**

* * *

Kitty sighed as she trudged listlessly into the Xavier Mansion. Granted, nobody could blame her for being so listless, what with her suffering five concussions--thanks to Lance and his "romantic presents"--but now that she had gone and unleashed her anger on her hapless former boyfriend, Kitty felt...guilty. It was true that Lance had nearly killed her with his so-called gifts, but she had to admit he didn't mean to screw up like he did. And she had probably overreacted in her anger, too, if she had been furious enough to yell at Lance with Wanda right next to him. Kitty sighed, and shouldered out of her backpack, before slowly making the trek upstairs and toward the large room she shared with Rogue. _I need a warm bubble bath and some double-fudge ice cream, _she thought tiredly to herself. She didn't care that she was about to go on a major piggying-out streak, she had damn near gotten permanent brain damage with Lance's five concussions, and she needed to indulge. And nothing spelled decadence more than chocolate. 

Kitty opened the door to her room, and, in her routine sweeping glance, she found a plain white package sitting neatly on the vanity dresser. Her nose scrunched up, as she wondered who could have possibly left it there. Feeling some of her tiredness vanish, Kitty dragged her feet across the soft, thick carpet and toward the dresser, reaching the package and taking it into her hands, examining the delivery for any labels and finding out it was addressed only to the Xavier Institute. Curious, she decided to rip it open, and was surprised and somewhat delighted when she found a CD single inside.  
"Gee, I wonder who this is for," Kitty started to wonder...then cringed when she realized it must be another one of Lance's "romantic presents".  
"Oh, great," she grumbled. But then again, turning the album over, she didn't _see_ anything that could possibly give her a concussion...unless there was a bumblebee just waiting to zip out from the CD case. Kitty shrugged, before deciding that she could afford to take that risk, and cautiously opened the case, unwittingly breathing a sigh of relief when nothing potentially dangerous flew out. She shrugged again, as she placed the CD into her Walkman and put on the headphones. Kitty waited expectantly for the music to start, and when the intro theme finally began, she leaned back against her bed and listened.

_**Song lyrics to Bon Jovi's "Always" removed, in accordance with FFN's newest brilliant idea**_

By the time the song had ended, Kitty had used up every Kleenex in the tissue box. She took a break from bawling her eyes out, before blowing her nose on the last usable piece of powder-pink tissue, all scorns and doubts about Lance's ability to be sweet and romantic every now and then having gone flying away. Her bubble bath and chocolate ice cream forgotten, Kitty quickly got up, placing the CD lovingly back into its case, before running down the stairs, re-energized, to have a talk--and maybe even consider reconciling--with one Brotherhood bad boy.

* * *

_Ding dong._  
Kitty rang the more or less broken doorbell of the Brotherhood boarding house, and waited patiently to be ushered in. A good five minutes had passed, before Wanda impatiently flung the rotting wooden door wide open, demanding grouchily, "What do you want?", as Slayer continued to blare in the background. Kitty leaned back under the sudden assault of loud rock & roll, before blinking away her surprise and asking timidly, "Is...is...is Lance home?" Wanda glared at her, before gruffly spitting out, "He's trying to fix a leak in the ceiling. Why?"  
"Oh." A hesitant silence followed, before Kitty finally ventured, "Well, then, is it okay if I come in and talk to him--just briefly?"  
Wanda shrugged, sparing one last glare before finally gritting out, "I don't see why not." 

Kitty followed the bewitching vixen into the dingy living room, taking in the even rattier condition that the entire house seemed to be in. Case in point: a second, Toad-shaped hole in the wall had joined the first one from a few months earlier. Either way, she wasn't here to critique the Brotherhood's decorum, she was here to talk to Lance, and thank him for his first ever romantic present. Kitty waited patiently as Wanda left, supposedly to fetch the leader of the Brotherhood. Finally, after a good ten minutes, the gothic vamp returned, with Lance at her heels. He seemed a bit surprised to see Kitty there, as, blinking, he asked, "Hi, Kitty. I didn't expect you to get my present so soon, especially since I just sent it out fifteen minutes ago." Kitty smiled, before saying, "That was so sweet of you to send me that." Lance shrugged, still a bit confused, but then grinned as if to say, _What the hey, _and leaned in to accept the quick hug, courtesy of his supposedly still ex-girlfriend.  
"So, where did you get the Bon Jovi single?" Kitty was asking. At this, an adorably clueless expression settled into Lance's chiseled features, as the tall senior wanted to know, "Huh?"  
"You know, the _Always_ single," Kitty reminded him. "It's by Bon Jovi, right?"  
"What _Always_ single?" Lance wanted to know, sounding completely bewildered by her words. Kitty looked a bit surprised at first, then an affectionate smile danced across her lips as she realized that he must be playing games with her.  
"Aw, I know it's from you, silly," Kitty said in a cheerful tone, smiling knowingly. "But if you're going to pretend, then I might as well go along and let you get a listen." And she carefully took out the album single and placed it into her Walkman, before offering the portable CD player to Lance. Lance shrugged, reluctantly accepting the Walkman with the _Always_ single in it and pushing Play. Kitty waited expectantly as Lance listened, eagerly anticipating a reaction.

The reaction that she got wasn't exactly the one she had been expecting, however, when halfway through the song, Lance promptly threw back his head and burst out laughing. Kitty was confused, and just a tad suspicious and offended, as she demanded, "What? What is it? What's so funny?" Lance pushed Stop and pulled off the earphones, still wiping tears of laughter from his face.  
"Kitty, sweetheart, you're a great girl and you know that I would do a lot of things to be with you," he began, and had to control himself as another fit of laughter took over him. When he had calmed down, Lance went on.  
"However," he added, "there is _no freakin' way_ I would be so stupid as to die for you! I mean, let's face it: who would?"  
Kitty's jaw dropped, as she hissed in outrage, "But...but...but...!"  
"Now, as for the crying for you part," Lance went on, "I'm not so sure about that. You don't happen to like raw onions, do you?"  
A still speechless Kitty wordlessly shook her head, and at that, Lance shrugged again.  
"Well, then, I'm sorry, but I guess I can't cry for you, either, if you told me to," he apologized cheerfully, and handed back her CD. "Here's your album back."  
By then, Kitty had snapped out of her shocked daze, and angrily snatched her belongings away from her now definitely former boyfriend.  
"Argh! I can't believe Jon Bon Jovi could write such a romantic song about lost love when he's already married, and you can't even be more romantic than a desert cactus!" she seethed, bristling. Lance shrugged.  
"Well, you know what they say about Italians, they're just so damn romantic," he replied carelessly. "As for me, though, I'm...well, actually, I don't know _what_ I am, but I'm pretty sure I'm at least part Canadian, and you know from that Nickelback video about us Canadian guys: all we do is bitch and moan about how abusive our ex-girlfriends were to us."  
Kitty looked like she wanted to slap the living daylights out of him, but one warning glare from Wanda convinced her to do otherwise.  
"Grr! I don't know what I ever saw in you, Lance Alvers, or why I thought there could possibly be a second chance for you and me," she bristled, fuming. "But now, I am glad I found Kurt!" And she turned on her heel and stormed out of the humble Brotherhood abode, slamming the door shut behind her and causing another crack in the crumbling wall.

Lance watched after her retreating back, then shrugged, before checking his watch.  
"Oh, well," he sighed. He then lit up, as he said, "Hey, at least my real present will be getting to her soon." Turning to Wanda, he asked, "You _did_ say she liked vegetarian pizza, right?"  
Wanda nodded. Just then, the phone rang, and she moved to pick it up.  
"Lance Alvers, I don't know what the hell you were thinking, sending twenty-five Vegetarian Delight pizzas to our house, but as soon as I see you, I'm going to kill you!" Scott's voice hollered across the receiver. Wanda winced, rubbing her busted eardrum, before handing the phone over to Lance and murmuring, "It's for you."


	4. Chapter Four

* * *

**Chapter Four**

* * *

Wanda arched her eyebrows, as she reluctantly brought over all the albums in her CD collection, and dumped them onto the floor, across from Lance's collection.   
"So tell me again," the dark-haired vixen wanted to know. "Just exactly why are we doing this?"   
Lance huffed, repressing the urge to roll his eyes due the fact that, well, he didn't dare offend the more sadistic of the Maximoff siblings, before meekly explaining, "You remember that modern teen movie adaptation of Shakespeare's _The Taming Of The Shrew? _You know, _Ten Things I Hate About You, _or whatever?"   
"Actually, no, I don't," Wanda replied snidely. "You see, I've got better things to do than watch a bunch of perfect size-zero bimbos masquerade as high school students and complain about their love lives." She paused, before demanding scornfully, "Do you?"   
Lance blanched, looking absolutely appalled at the very idea of watching teen movies, and grumbled, "Of course I do! It's just that when Kitty and I were still dating, I thought it would be a good first date movie."   
"Oh, okay." Wanda seemed to have regained an ounce or two of respect from the amount she had lost when she first suspected Lance watched teen movies.   
"So, anyway," Lance went on, "in the movie, when some pretty boy wannabe embarrassed the skinny chick with the ten-pound hair, he made it up to her and won her back by sliding down some pole and onto the bleachers, and singing this really sappy love song."   
"Oh, yeah, I know that," Wanda said knowingly. "I think I saw it in a commercial, once. The Janey's got a gun, bit, right?"   
"Uck, no," Lance corrected her. "That's the spoof of the movie. So, what I'm thinking is, I don't want to make the same mistake that Janey's got a gun chump made, so I'm going to pick out a song that's actually romantic, and sing it to Kitty."   
"Why don't you just use another Bon Jovi single?" Wanda spoke up logically. "Kitty seems to like them--or maybe it's just the hair and the smile."   
"Well, I tried to get my hands on a copy of the lyrics to _Bed of Roses,_ but it's too damn long, and I really don't like the idea of memorizing all those lines." Lance made a face. Wanda shrugged, then ran a hand through the pile of CD's.   
"Don't worry," she murmured, "I'm sure that, between the two of us and our albums, we can find _something_ remotely romantic."   
Lance perked up, re-energized, and grinned.   
"Okay, then," he said. "I'll go first." And he plucked the first CD from his collection. 

"Nirvana."   
Wanda went next, reaching for her pile of albums and taking one.   
"Metallica."   
"Pearl Jam."   
"Anthrax."   
"Alice in Chains."   
"Celtic Frost."   
"Soundgarten."   
"Pantera."   
"Motörhead."   
"Motörhead."   
At this, both members of the Brotherhood stopped, and looked at each other.   
"Really?" Lance grinned again, as Wanda cracked a smile for what seemed to be the first time in ages.   
"What's your copy of the Motörhead album?" Lance wanted to know.   
_"No Sleep 'Till Hammersmith,"_ Wanda replied promptly.   
"Hey, same here."   
The two were grinning, feeling somewhat cheery over the fact that they had found common ground...before realizing that any similarities _they_ shared wouldn't help get Kitty back, and that the pretty freshman probably wouldn't be too charmed by Nirvana's _Rape Me, _let alone sit through _anything_ by Anthrax.   
"Uh...maybe we should raid Pietro's CD case," Wanda spoke up. Lance quickly nodded.   
"Right," he agreed. 

* * *

Kitty flung open the gates to the Xavier Mansion with a vengeance, furiously storming inside the meticulously-kept lawns. Bristling, she paused halfway to the house to seethe, "Argh, Lance Alvers is the biggest jerk in the universe!", before resuming her angry trek toward the mansion. She glared daggers at anything and everything in sight, and would have crashed right through the elegant glass doors--literally--had Scott not opened them for her, a nanosecond before the usually perky freshman would have phased into the house.   
"Whoa, what's with you today?" a bewildered Scott wanted to know upon seeing the furious expression on his teammate's face, a half-eaten slice of vegetarian pizza in his hands. Kitty whirled around, and spat out venomously, "You know what the problem with guys is?"   
Scott blinked, taken aback, before venturing, "Uh...we exist?"   
Kitty scowled.   
"No, it's not that," she huffed, before snarling, "It's that even a frickin' _cactus_ is more romantic than a...a...a _guy!"_   
"Um...I'm sorry?" Ever the expert, having had mirrors of this same conversation more times than he cared to remember with Jean, Scott immediately began to apologize, while not even knowing exactly what it was that he had done wrong.   
"Grr!" Kitty growled, before stomping upstairs and into her room. Scott heard a vicious clang, signaling that a particular bedroom door had been slammed shut, and winced, before shrugging and returning to the kitchen, calling out, "Kurt, get your lazy, wimpy butt back in here! We've still got eighteen Vegetarian Delight pizza boxes to go!" 

Kitty threw her copy of the _Always_ single onto her bed, pacing around at a furious speed. _Wait a minute, _she thought to herself suddenly, _if Lance didn't send me that album--and I _know_ he didn't--then...who was it meant for? _An idea occurred to her, as, out loud, she wondered, "Was...was that album meant for Rogue? Did she break some guy's heart and now he's trying to get back together with her?" The idea that a person as...erm, antisocial as Rogue could even snag a romantic boyfriend was rather depressing. 

Just then, a statuesque redhead peeked into the room, and Kitty had no trouble recognizing her as being Jean Grey.   
"Hey, Kitty," Jean began, "have you by any chance seen a plain white package addressed to the Xavier Institute?"   
_Oops,_ Kitty mentally kicked herself, as Jean went on, "I ordered a copy of Bon Jovi's _Always_ single from Amazon a few weeks ago, and it was supposed to get here today, but when I couldn't find it anywhere, I figured that Evan must have misplaced it when he took in the mail today, and put it in your room instead of mine."   
Kitty wished she could just sink through the floor, as she realized that she'd made an even greater fool of herself in front of her ex-boyfriend and his viciously bewitching teammate. Wait a minute...she could! Kitty shrugged, and started phasing away. 

* * *

"You know, why am I not even surprised that Pietro's got about forty copies of that _I'm too sexy_ whatever song?" Lance grumbled, sounding more irritated than amused as he poked around his silver-haired teammate's meticulous room. Wanda shrugged, before carelessly tossing a copy of some KISS album, and then lighting up as she zoomed in on a particular CD.   
"Hey, maybe you can get something reasonably romantic off of Pietro's copy of Def Leppard's _Pyromania _album," she suggested, showing the tall senior the particular CD. Lance took one look, and frowned.   
"Hey," he sputtered indignantly, "that's _my_ copy of Def Leppard's _Pyromania!"_   
Wanda shrugged.   
"You ought to have learned by now, _never_ let Pietro borrow anything from you," she warned.   
"Well, then, I guess I'll never learn," Lance mumbled, as he snatched the CD away from her and took out the cover booklet, absently leafing through the small lyric book. "Hey, what about _Foolin'?_ That's romantic enough, isn't it?"   
Wanda shrugged.   
"It's the best thing we've got available in this house," she muttered. "Why don't you try to sing a few bars?"   
"Okay, then." Lance then took a few deep breaths, before beginning to clear his throat. "Ahem. Ahem. Ahem!"   
"Will you just cut out the shenanigans and start singing?" Wanda griped irritably. Lance cleared his throat one last time, before grumbling, "Fine, fine." Taking a deep breath, he began to repeat part of the chorus.   
"Cause baby I'm _not!"_ he screeched out, trying to make his voice as high-pitched as possible in order to stay true to eighties hair metal, and Wanda had to wince. Lance, however, happily oblivious to the discomfort of both Wanda and any canines within a five-mile radius, continued to cluelessly trill away.   
"F-F-F--" he started to shrill, before Wanda quickly cut him off.   
"Excuse me?" she demanded. "What exactly are you trying to say here?"   
Lance pointed indignantly at the lyric booklet.   
"It's right here," he grumbled. "You know, F-F-F-Foolin'!"   
Wanda gave a smug smirk.   
"I'm sorry," she began snidely, "but wouldn't Princess Preppy be terrified that you're trying to soil her virgin years by stuttering out the f-word?"   
Lance looked offended.   
"Kitty's not _that_ much of a goody-two-shoes," he huffed, defending his former girlfriend from his gothic teammate's sharp wit and even sharper tongue. Wanda smirked again.   
"Try going out to the bleachers while she's practicing track and sing off the F-F-F-Foolin' part," she scorned, "and your little girlfriend will be out of the field, holding her ears in fear that you'll say the f-word and corrupt her virgin ears, faster than you can actually say the f-word!"   
Lance huffed.   
"Okay, okay, then," he grumbled. "So I won't use Def Leppard." Then, almost as an afterthought, he added quickly, "But I ain't doing no Bon Jovi, either! Too damn long."   
Wanda, who had been shuffling through Pietro's excessively large collection of tight shirts and CD albums, closed in on a particular title, and began to grin. Holding up the CD, she turned around to face Lance and asked, "Hey, what do you think of this one? It's pretty romantic, it doesn't require you to really belt out the lyrics until the end...and the vocal part is really short, so you won't have to memorize a whole lot of lyrics."   
Lance examined the title she held out to him closely, and began to smile.   
"Wanda," he murmured admiringly, "I think you may be on to something." 


	5. Chapter Five

* * *

**Chapter Five**

* * *

Why did track have to hold practice meets right in the middle of lunch, when all the runners were famished and the rest of the student body had nothing better to do than to watch them drag their feet around the track and laugh at the pathetic people dying of starvation? Kitty never did figure that one out; all she did know was that practically the entire school was watching, and that she couldn't afford to screw up in front of said school. Thus, she was instantly on guard, when she saw two figures standing atop the bleachers, setting up a bunch of amplifiers. Kitty squinted, shielding her eyes from the sun, and then realized to her dismay that the two people setting up said amps turned out to be Lance and Wanda. And...and...and was she just imagining things, or was Lance really wearing a pair of tight--emphasis on the word _tight--_black leather pants with the front casually unbuckled, and a flowing white dress shirt? Kitty shrugged, and decided that the lack of food must be getting to her. She prepared to take a warm-up jog around the track, when suddenly, the pretty freshman froze, as she remembered a scene from a particular movie. Or actually, _two_ particular movies: the first one was Heath Ledger's somewhat romantic and totally adorable serenade atop the bleachers in _Ten Things I Hate About You._ That wouldn't be _so_ bad. But, seeing as how this was Lance, he would probably emulate the whole Janey's got a gun bit from _Not Another Teen Movie. _Kitty winced, and buried her face in the palms of her hands.  
"Oh, no..." she moaned, bracing herself for the humiliation she would suffer, especially when the entire school had no idea that she was going out with Kurt now, and still assumed that she was with Lance. 

On top of the bleachers, Lance paced around nervously, the tight, tight, _tight_ leather pants beginning to cut off the circulation to his...legs (well, what did you think I was gonna say?). He glared impatiently at Wanda, and hissed, "Would you hurry up? People are beginning to stare!"  
Wanda gruffly shot back, "Duh, that's what they're _supposed_ to do!" Lance paused, a retort ready on the tip of his tongue...before he realized, grudgingly, that she was right.  
"Oh, okay, then," he mumbled. Just then, Wanda straightened up.  
"All right, now," she murmured. "Ready when you are."  
Lance gripped the microphone he held in his hand, reassured that there wouldn't be any security guards to haul him off and throw him into Detention, since Wanda had made sure that no security guards would be conscious for at the very least forty-five minutes, and struck a rock star pose.  
"Hit it!" he ordered, and Wanda obediently began to play the record, the music amplified so that it, along with Lance's singing--however bad--carried across the fields so that Kitty and everyone within a five-mile radius could listen.

A vaguely familiar keyboard intro started to play, swelling into a classic rock & roll tune, as Lance took a deep breath, raised the microphone to his lips, and began to sing.  
"You know that it would be untrue," he crooned, emulating sixties sex symbol Jim Morrison of the Doors belting out the lyrics to _Light My Fire. _Meanwhile, on the tracks, Kitty stopped squeezing her eyes shut, having been anticipating something totally humiliating like _Rape Me, _but instead being pleasantly surprised by something less...um, non-romantic? However, her smile quickly vanished from her face, as Lance sang out the rest of the classic Doors tune.

_**Song lyrics to the Doors' "Light My Fire" removed, in accordance with FFN's newest brilliant idea**_

As Lance took a brief, dramatic break from the vocals, Kitty's teammates on the track team--and just about everyone else not named Lance or Wanda--turned to gawk at the perky freshman...especially concerning the getting higher part. But the humiliation wasn't over yet. Atop the bleachers, Lance was getting ready to sing again.

**_Song lyrics to the Doors' "Light My Fire" removed, in accordance with FFN's newest brilliant idea_**

Meanwhile, back on top of the bleachers, Lance took a break from the singing, as the instrumental break--and it was a _long_ one--took over. He took a swig of water, and waited for the telltale keyboard intro that told him it was time to sing again. And waited. And waited. And waited. After a good three-and-a-half minutes of waiting, Lance got bored of doing what he had been doing for the past, well, three-and-a-half minutes. By the time _Light My Fire _had hit the four-and-half-minute mark, Lance was pretty much asleep on his feet, nearly snoring. Wanda glared, before shoving him none too gently and nearly sending him rocketing right to the sky.  
"My pet Toad ate my homework, I swear!" the tall senior shrieked, plucking at the first excuse that came to mind. And then he realized that he wasn't in English class, and Wanda was far too pretty to be grumpy old Mrs. Willis, and grinned sheepishly.  
"You're not going to win her over--and I'm not going to be left alone--by just standing around looking like a moron," Wanda chastised. Lance blinked cluelessly.  
"But what am I supposed to do?" he wanted to know. Now it was Wanda's turn to look clueless.  
"I don't know," she admitted. "I never got around to look at that footage of Jim Morrison actually performing; all I know is that he was very passionate."  
At this, Lance reclaimed The Clueless Look, as he asked, dumbfounded, "How am I supposed to be passionate?"  
Wanda threw up her hands in frustration.  
"I don't know!" she seethed. "Just...dance around and look pretty, or something!"  
Lance shrugged.  
"Um, okay," he murmured uncertainly, and then began to wiggle around. "Is this passionate?"  
"For God's sake, you look like you're humping the air!" Wanda exclaimed, exasperated. Insulted, Lance quickly changed his routine.  
"Fine, then," he grumbled. "Is _this_ passionate?"  
"Now you look like you're having a heart attack," came the prompt, sour reply. Lance huffed.  
"You know, you don't have to be so damn insensitive, and besides, do you know how hard it is to move around in leather pants _this_ tight...?" he started to grumble. Just then, there was a telltale ripping sound, as Lance suddenly froze. Wanda arched her eyebrows at the sudden lack of movement of her partner in crime.  
"What is it?" she wanted to know. "How come you're no longer going into convulsions?"  
"My pants ripped in the butt!" Lance hissed out of the corner of the mouth.  
"Oh, let me see..." Wanda murmured. Lance glared.  
"Wanda!" he snapped. Wanda, for once, backed off.  
"Okay, okay," she muttered.  
Just then, the familiar keyboards struck, and Wanda advised, "Listen, _Light My Fire's _almost over. Just finish the song, and get the hell out of here and into the boys' locker room. I'll cover for you--though _not_ by flashing someone!"  
"Okay," Lance eeped meekly.

Meanwhile, back on the field, Kitty had just about sunken onto the ground in humiliation, as people continued to stare at her. And then, as if to make matters worse, a suddenly non-prancing Lance dived right back into the song--and into the getting higher part--as the keyboards hit and the microphone returned to his lips.

**_Song lyrics to the Doors' "Light My Fire" removed, in accordance with FFN's newest brilliant idea_**

And then the keyboards hit again, and Wanda pushed a gloating Lance away from the bleachers and toward what looked like the boys' locker room. But the damage was already done, and the image of Lance and whom they assumed to be still Kitty's boyfriend, prancing around in a pair of uber-tight leather pants and singing about girls getting higher, was indelibly etched forever into the minds of the thousand-plus audience to his stunning rendition of _Light My Fire._

* * *

The headlines on the next day's school newspaper, splashed all across the front page, read in bold, black print, **Senior Revealed His Freshman Girlfriend Possesses Crack Via Coded Song Format During Lunch Yesterday!**

* * *

Hey, there's just one last chapter left! Sniff, sniff. I always get so sentimental when I finish off a ficcy. Oh, well. By the way, I already have the last chapter all typed out, and it's _long._ Not that long, but longer than all the other chapters. But you'll just have to wait and see, 'cause I'm not posting that up until the very earliest, Friday night. Mwahahahaha! Me evil! In the meantime, you can keep those reviews coming! Please? I'm trying to at least make the twenty mark. 


	6. Chapter Six

* * *

**Chapter Six**

* * *

Lance listlessly trudged through the crowded sidewalk, occasionally pausing to blink dazedly under the assault of neon lights, before muttering grumpily, "I don't see the point of going out tonight. I just want to go back home and--"   
"And what? Sulk over the fact that Kitty won't even talk to you now after the _Light My Fire _incident?" Wanda cut him off impatiently. Lance paused for a while, a retort ready on the tip of his tongue, before spitting out, "Well...yes!" Wanda rolled her eyes, and tightened her maroon leather trench coat around her, grabbing Lance's arm and propelling him through the sea of late night party-ers.   
"Look, Lance, there are better things to do than sit around a rickety old mansion and flap your gums about how some skinny freshman dumped your ass," she chastised, as the two finally arrived in front of a glamorous-looking bar/nightclub, complete with swirling neon lights and an underground rock band penciled in to perform later on that night.   
"Besides," Wanda went on, almost cheerfully, as the two waited around to be ushered inside, "some guy I once knew came to this bar after getting dumped by his girlfriend, and it certainly cheered him up right away. In fact, I think he met someone new here, and the two have been going out ever since." 

The two were finally ushered inside...and promptly gawked at the sea of men in tight muscle shirts and sideburns, and high-heeled, miniskirt-wearing drag queens. It wasn't long before the duo had put two and two together, and discovered that they were at a...*drumroll* gay bar! Lance whirled around, glaring at his guilty-looking companion, as he gritted out in a deathly quiet voice, "Wanda...!" Wanda eeped, and quickly averted her eyes, pretending to be fascinated by the dance floor underneath her stiletto heels. 

Just then, some guy came over to the couple standing awkwardly in front of the dance floor, intending to welcome them to the bar.   
"Hey, is this your first time? Don't worry, the people here are very friendly and open-minded," he assured them. And then he took notice of tall, dark, and handsome young man beside Wanda, and smiled flirtatiously, adding, "By the way, my name's Rico. What's yours?" while batting his eyelashes. Lance pulled uncomfortably at his collar, swallowing hard, but thankfully, he wasn't required to reply, as Rico noticed that Lance was with Wanda, and assumed that the two were together. Rico pouted, thinking that Lance was already in a relationship, muttering, "Great, all the good-looking ones are either straight or already in relationships!"   
Lance grinned uneasily, and was about to get the hell out of there, but just then, Rico made the mistake of turning to Wanda and flashing her a friendly smile, remarking, "Hey, who's your surgeon? Because whoever he or she is, they did a great job on you! You almost look just like a real woman!"   
Lance cringed, and turned fearfully to a suddenly rigid Wanda, who had tightened her hands into fists.   
"Um...Wanda?" he asked in a tiny voice, as the bewitching, one hundred percent all natural woman bristled, dangerously on the edge. He didn't know why, but all of a sudden, he was starting to feel mighty sorry for poor Rico.   
"Wanda...?" 

SLAP! 

* * *

Exactly half an hour after Wanda's disastrous attempt at taking Lance on a night out to cheer him up--the time it took for the owner of the gay bar to throw them out--the duo returned to the humble Brotherhood abode. Both sported the occasional bruise and black eye here and there, but aside from a few strands of ruffled hair, they appeared to be perfectly fine. As Lance hung up his black leather jacket on the last available coat hanger, he turned to Wanda with a look of admiration and remarked, "Wow, Wanda! You're the first girl I've ever known to have started a bar room brawl!" 

* * *

**Two Weeks Later...**

The Xavier Institute on Saturday nights was never calm. There were always the last-minute primping for a date, or the phone arguments with Pizza Hut over how much cheese was extra cheese (Kurt), and so forth...but on that particular Saturday night, the palatial mansion was in a state of absolute chaos, as all the students (save for poor little Jamie Madrox) tore up the house in preparation for the Spring Dance at the high school. Everyone was paired off in either couples (Scott and Jean, Bobby and Jubilation, etc.) or going in groups of friends (Rogue, Amara, and Rahne). Naturally, the newest couple at the Institute, Kurt and Kitty, were going together. 

Meanwhile, cue over to the rickety Brotherhood house. As a crooked shingle fell off the crumbling Victorian and missed by two inches smashing into the Brotherhood's only means of transportation (Lance's Jeep, which was in surprisingly good condition), Lance himself hopped around the house, getting ready to go the dance as well. He, however, wasn't going with a date, or in a group of friends, seeing as how his mission that night was not to have fun or score with the ladies, but rather, to keep an eye on Kitty (duh!). As Lance frantically ran amuck through Pietro's walk-in closet, Wanda glanced up from the Guns N' Roses album she'd stolen (also from Pietro--gee, Pietro certainly seems to be a popular candidate for getting his stuff stolen by the other members of the Brotherhood! -_-), long enough to remark, "Um...Lance, you _do_ know that the Spring Dance is one of the more romantic events of the school year, and that people generally go with a date?" Lance paused, a pair of non-ripped black leather pants in his hands, pouting for about two seconds...before suddenly lighting up. Turning to a now wary Wanda, he started to say, "Wanda: the most beautiful, bewitching, intelligent, charming, lovable, sweet, powerful, adorable, independent, strong..." Wanda leapt up before he could finish.   
"Oh, no you're not!" she snapped, glaring at the leader of the Brotherhood. "Not this time! And don't try those puppy dog eyes, either! There is no way--and I mean _no way in hell--_that I'm going to some lousy high school makeout fest, complete with cheesy music and overblown ticket prices! I'm putting my foot down this time, Lance, so don't try to weedle me into going with you! There is no way in hell that I'm going to the dance!_ No way in hell!"_

* * *

Over at Bayville High, the Spring Dance was going in full swing, as the school gymnasium practically pulsated with Kylie Minogue's _Can't Get You Out Of My Head_ blasting at ninety-plus decibels over the amps. Over by the entrance to the dance, just as people were getting ready to close the doors, a last couple breathlessly dashed their way over. Lance and Wanda, both dressed to kill in black leather and wine-red, respectively, made their grand entrance into the Spring Dance. Lance was recognized as the Jim Morrison wannabe and the _Light My Fire _guy, amongst other, less flattering things. 

* * *

*Okay, okay, I know I promised that there was going to be just one last chapter left, but when I went over said last chapter, I realized that it was way too long, and decided to cut it in half, because this is my story, and I can, so nyah! -_- Well, that and the fact that I just didn't want to see this ficcie end, I've grown quite attached to it. But I promise, the next last chapter really _is_ going to be the last chapter. And if I had ever been a Girl Scout, I'd do the whole Scout's Honor thing, but since I've never been a Girl Scout, then I guess you'll have to settle, for, um...Non-Scout's Honor? Hey, we're still very honorable, ya know! ^_^ 


	7. Chapter Seven

"Lanciepoo in leather pantsss... ::faints::" Heh heh, you seem to have forgotten that they're not _just_ leather pants, they're tight, tight, _tight_ black leather pants, with the front _unbuckled_ and the backside that eventually got _ripped_ -_^. As for the part about the leather pants ripping in the backside, I actually got that from a chat transcript with the always sexy Creed frontman, Scott Stapp (ladies, for reference, see here: http://communities.msn.com/CreedPit/scottstapppart1.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=1075--yeah, now imagine him wearing leather pants that have ripped in the backside; boy what I'd give to have been at that particular concert -_^), when someone asked him what his most embarrassing moment onstage was. 

* * *

**Chapter Seven**

* * *

As the Spring Dance plowed on in full swing, Kurt and Kitty danced the night away, having a great time. Lance and Wanda, positioned a couple of feet away, were sort of trying to dance, with Lance spending less time looking at his supposed date for the evening, and more time looking over her shoulders to alternate between glaring murderous daggers at Kurt, and giving Kitty pathetic puppy dog eyes. Wanda ground her teeth as Lance, in his distracted state of mind, nearly collided right into her while keeping his eyes firmly glued on the back of Kitty's ponytail, and, as a warning, stomped on his foot--hard.   
"Yeowch!" Lance hollered, and started hopping around on his one good foot like a chicken that had just had its head cut off. Thankfully for him, _Hella Good _was blaring out of the amplifiers, loud enough to wake the dead, and nobody heard Lance yelp out comically. Lance, meanwhile, gave apologetically at Wanda, and mouthed the words, _Sorry. I won't do it again, promise. _But, no more than five minutes later, he was back to killing Kurt with his eyes and drooling pathetically over Kitty. By the time the first hour of the dance had gone by, Wanda had had enough. and, fed up with Lance paying zero attention to her and instead babbling on about whether Kitty's favorite shade of nail polish was Desert Rose or Flirtatious Cherry, she gave him one last glare, before storming off the dance floor.   
"Wanda..." Lance, having suddenly forgotten about his Stalk Kitty Mission, ran off after the bewitching vixen without a second thought--or a second glance at Kitty, still dancing with Kurt. 

* * *

While Wanda and Lance ran out of the gym, the Spring Dance itself had delved into the latter, more romantic half of the evening, and had switched from upbeat bubblegum pop to soft ballads. Kurt and Kitty were happily slow-dancing, a few feet away from Scott and Jean. Kitty sighed contentedly as she snuggled against her new boyfriend, resting her head against his shoulders, glad that, for once, Lance and his leather pants and his Jim Morrison impersonation and his frozen chocolate candies, were far, far away. Smiling, she murmured into Kurt's ear, "I'm so glad that you talked me into coming; I wasn't even going to after Lance had to go to track practice and sing about me getting higher."   
Kurt smiled back.   
"Well, you know, I couldn't let you just waste Saturday evening--" he started to say, when suddenly, his entire body stiffened. Kitty frowned at her boyfriend's sudden silence, and wondered why he'd suddenly frozen in his tracks. Turning around, she tried to search for what had alarmed her boyfriend...and her heart sank when she saw a pretty, dark-haired girl weaving purposefully through the sea of dancing couples. Amanda. Kurt's ex-girlfriend, with whom he had broken up to be with Kitty. 

Kurt smiled nervously as Amanda approached them, looking as petite and pretty as ever in a flowered sundress and with a rose tucked into her hair.   
"Um...Amanda. Hi. I...I, um, I'm glad to have run into you," he stammered nervously, as nearby, Scott and Jean had stopped dancing, and were waiting anxiously to see what would happen. Amanda, meanwhile, returned Kurt's fake greeting with an even phonier, sugary-sweet smile, as she replied in a honey-drenched voice, "Gee, Kurt, I'm glad to have run into you and your newest girlfriend too."   
"Amanda, I know we used to go out and everything, but our relationship ended nearly two months ago..." Kurt looked visibly upset as he tried to explain to his former girlfriend that their fling was over. Amanda's features froze into a stolid mask, before suddenly melting into exhaustion and despair, as she cried, on the verge of tears, "Kurt, how could you break up with me five days before our one-month anniversary--and...and...and to chase after one of your roommates, too, who was already dating someone at the time?! I mean, I thought we had something special, especially since you trusted me with your secret!"   
Kurt winced, as more and more couples stopped dancing and started staring at the trio on the floor.   
"Amanda, please, not here," he whispered, trying to make his voice as low as possible to contrast that of his ex-girlfriend's. "You're causing a scene!"   
"I don't care!" Amanda shot back, then turned to glare at all the gawking eyes and snapped, "Oh, what are you looking at? Haven't you seen a couple fight before?"   
"But Amanda, that's just it!" Kurt hissed. "We're _not_ a couple anymore!" And then, fearful that his former girlfriend might go on a rampage and start telling everyone his secret, Kurt quickly added, in an effort to appease her, "What do you want from me?"   
Amanda sulked.   
"I want us to be back together," she pouted. Kurt paused, trying to tactfully think of a way to turn her down without making her angry so that she wouldn't start blabbing not just his but also the X-Men's secret to anyone who would listen. And, in a high school, everyone was willing to listen to gossip, the more outrageous, the more widely-spread. Kitty, however, took his stretch of uncertain silence the wrong way, as she turned to Kurt, eyes blazing, and furiously spat out, "Oh, so now you're just going to kick me to the curb and get back together with your clingy little ex just because she sheds some tears and puts on a slutty little sundress?!" Kurt looked taken aback by her aggressiveness.   
"No, of course not...!" he started to stammer, but his words fell on a pair of deaf ears, as Kitty grabbed her purse and, following in Wanda's example, stormed out of the gym. Kurt sighed, and tried to go after her, but Amanda held him back and asked eagerly, "Well? Are we back together?" Kurt hesitated, and tried to think of a way to wriggle out of this situation. A few feet away, Scott and Jean were giving him sympathetic looks. Kurt shrugged, and decided that it was best to search for the silver lining rather than dwell on the half-empty glass. _Oh, well,_ he finally decided, _at least Kitty didn't bitch-slap me or something._

Just then, Kitty stalked back in the gym, and searched out Kitty. She stomped up to him, and wound up. 

SLAP! 

* * *

Off the dance floor and completely unaware of what was happening inside the gym--and of his perfect opportunity to get back together with Kitty--Lance was still chasing after Wanda, slamming open every door he could find and calling out her name.   
"Wanda? Wanda, are you in here?" he wanted to know, as he opened the door to a janitor's closet...and promptly found himself walking in on a couple, making out on a carpet of brooms and mops. "Oh, my God...!" Lance quickly shut the door, just in time before the girl's stiletto struck him between the eyes, and quickly resumed his search. "Wanda...?"   
Just then, he caught a flash of wine-red, disappearing out the door that led outside the high school and toward the lake.   
"Oh, great," Lance muttered under his breath, as he prepared to go after Wanda's disappearing back. 

Just then, Lance thought he heard a noise, and whirled around so fast that he nearly slipped and fell unceremoniously on his behind. He quickly regained his balance, and had no trouble identifying a rather upset-looking Kitty, rubbing the palm of her hand as she stormed out of the gym.   
"Kitty!" Without even thinking, Lance called out her name. Kitty stopped muttering not-so-flattering comments about one Kurt Wagner, as she raised her head and scanned her surroundings for whomever had called out to her. As soon as she recognized Lance, she froze, like a deer caught in headlights.   
"Kitty..." Lance started to walk over to her, but Kitty quickly ran off...right in the opposite direction of where Wanda had exited. Lance paused in his tracks. Whereas before he would have run off after Kitty without a second thought, now he suddenly wasn't so sure any more. He hesitated, debating whom he should chase after: his ex-girlfriend whom he was trying to get back together with...or his new, bewitching good friend. Lance pondered over his dilemma, but not for long, as he quickly made up his mind, and plowed on in a certain direction. 

* * *

*Okay, okay, I'm terrible! I _know_ I promised you guys that this would absolutely be the last chapter in the _Always_ series, but after I went over it, I found out that it was _still_ too long, and I just _had_ to cut it...again. That, and I couldn't resist leaving a sort of cliffhanger. Don't worry, though, I _swear_ that the next time I update, it really, truly, _absolutely_ will be the last chapter, and if it isn't, then I'll personally send you free cyber-donuts! Unless, of course, psychodelic barfly would prefer me to paste a picture of Lance's face on top of her favorite leather-pants-wearing rock star's head, ^_-. 


	8. Chapter Eight

Okay, this time, I SWEAR it's the last chapter! Cross my heart and hope to die! Well...maybe not _die, _but something just as bad, like, um...break a nail? -- But seriously, though, this really _is_ the last chapter; besides I've already accomplished what I'd set out to accomplish anyway: leave a pathetic attempt at a cliffhanger, and break my record of never going past seven chapters. It's true, too, if you'll just click on my name, and you'll see that I don't have any other stories (besides this one) that go beyond seven chapters! Yeesh.

* * *

**Chapter Eight**

* * *

Kitty burst into an empty English classroom and quickly closed the door. A careless student had left the radio on, and now it played softly in the background, and Kitty had no trouble recognizing it as being No Doubt's _Don't Speak._ She closed her eyes and sank onto the floor, burying her face into the palm of her hands as she lamented her relationship woes. 

Just then, _Don't Speak _ended, and the DJ came back on.  
"Ladies and gentlemen, there's just been a dedication via phone," he announced. "From Lance...to Kitty."  
Kitty snapped up, stunned, and quickly wiped away a tear that had managed to escape her forceful control and slip down her pale cheek. Listening attentively and hanging on to the DJ's every word, Kitty reached over and turned the volume up, as said DJ repeated Lance's message.  
"Lance says that he's been acting pretty foolish lately, because he can't get over the fact that the relationship is over, and he would like to apologize for that," the DJ said, and Kitty began to smile. "However, Lance also realizes that it's time to move on, and time to let Kitty go, and he wishes Kitty good luck in her new relationship. Here is the song, from Lance, to Kitty, _Here Is Gone,_ by The Goo Goo Dolls."

**_Song lyricsremoved, in accordance with FFN's newest brilliant idea_**

* * *

Over by the pier, Wanda was sitting on the wooden dock facing the glassy, obsidian-colored waters of the lake, glaring into the darkness. She straightened up when she heard footsteps...but then turned away when she realized that the person approaching was none other than Lance Alvers.  
"Mind if I sit down?" The question was asked softly, gently...almost apologetically. Wanda turned away, and didn't bother to reply, but Lance took a seat beside her, anyway. He tried to look directly at her, but she refused to meet his eyes, so the two instead simply sat there in tense silence, with Creed's _My Sacrifice_ playing softly in the background, the hit single being carried over from the noisy Spring Dance back at the high school.

After several minutes of sitting tensely side-by-side, Wanda finally broke the ice, by demanding snidely, "Shouldn't you be out chasing after your perfect little girlfriend?"  
Lance was silent for a while, before he cleared his throat and admitted, "I know I've been a fool for the chase these last couple of days, but I'm finally over our relationship--for good."  
"Oh." Wanda was surprised, as she forgot that she was supposed to be angry with him and turned around to look at Lance. They locked eyes for a brief while, before Wanda hastily lowered her gaze and muttered, "Well, then, I guess all this time we spent together, trying to get you back with Kitty, was for nothing."  
There was the briefest of pauses, before Lance replied softly, "I wouldn't say that it was all for nothing."

Wanda turned to look at him again, and this time, their eyes met and stayed that way, as Lance murmured, somewhat changing the topic, "You know, it's the slow dance back at the gym." Wanda shrugged, and started to mutter something incomprehensible, glad that it was dark so that he couldn't see her blush. Lance suddenly got up, as _My Sacrifice_ ended and _Always_ ironically began. He extended one hand, and murmured softly, "Wanda: truly the most beautiful, intelligent girl I have ever met, will you give me the honor of sharing this dance with me?"  
Wanda was blushing furiously, as she hesitated for a while, and then, as _Always_ delved into its chorus, she took Lance's hand...and accepted it.

* * *

**TheEnd **

No, really. This is the end. There isn't going to be any more chapters. Well, not until inspiration hits me in the face again, like Bon Jovi's _Always_ did. In fact--I think I'm going to put on some more Jovi right now...


End file.
